For Professor Dennis Meadows,
the Award's 2007 Winner
Berlin , 7 November - Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am sorry not to be with you today to celebrate
the extraordinary career and influential
thinking of Professor Dennis Meadows-the
highly deserved winner of this year's Berlin
Peace Clock Award.
2007 is perhaps a year more than most,
when the ideas and assessments made by Professor
Meadows and the co-authors of the 1972 "Limits
of Growth' have finally come home to roost
in the popular consciousness.
When 'Limits to Growth' was penned, the
world was living within its means. In 2007
it has become clear that we are now living
beyond our means and that the future stability
of our planet is now in jeopardy.
As professor Meadows has noted in recent
interviews and statements, the next 20 years
could see more changes in the Earth's natural
assets than at any time in the history of
human-kind.
The honouring of Professor Meadows with
this prize does not come in a vacuum.
The links between environmental degradation,
specifically as a result of climate change,
and peace and security will also be formally
acknowledged in Oslo on 10 December.
This is when former US Vice-President Al
Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change are jointly awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize-an event that will occur as
environment, and importantly finance, ministers
gather in Bali for the next and most crucial
round of negotiations under the UN climate
convention.
Earlier this year the UN Security Council
formally debated the issue of climate change
and security. Meanwhile 2007 has witnessed
statements from retired military leaders
in the United States and serving officers
in Australia and the United Kingdom on the
security challenges that global warming
now presents.
UNEP, in a landmark report on Sudan, has
made the link between conflict and tensions
in the Darfur region and elsewhere as a
result of a changing climate.
The mismatch between the Earth's biological
carrying capacity and the consumption of
nature-based assets is starkly outlined
in UNEP's latest Global Environment Outlook-4-the
peer reviewed work of some 1,300 experts
published and widely reported in October.
So Professor Meadows, we have finally caught
up with your visionary work over 30 years
or more-and perhaps we have, at least on
climate change, reached a critical mass
of political, business, local authority,
scientific and civil society will.
Perhaps we have also finally learnt the
concept of a 'systems approach'-one that
breaks down the artificial barriers of the
boxes marked 'fish stocks' or 'freshwaters'
or 'forests' and understands the inescapable
links between all living things, nature-based
resources and human well-being.
And perhaps the warnings enshrined in your
years of pioneering research, writing and
lecturing on sustainable development, may
have in 2007 reached a tipping point in
favour of universal action.
Congratulations again on deservedly winning
this award and congratulations to the organizers.
The Berlin Peace Clock Award, initiated
in 1992 by Jens Lorentz and revived in 2003
by the city's Senator for Science, Research
and Culture and UNESCO, should be commended
for raising awareness of the vital link
between sustainability and the UN Universal
Declaration of Human Rights-not just within
this generation but between generations
past, present and future.
Thank you for your attention
